refocusing can be as easy as 1, 2, 3!
Life is always happening and it feels impossible to stay on track. You make progress and then something happens in your personal life and quickly you find yourself unfocused, unmotivated and off track again. This is a frustrating problem and it is tempting to think there is something wrong with you, since this happens a lot. Sigh…
But no worries, as often as life takes you of track you can follow these 3 simple steps to get back on track quick and make up for lost time.
- Give Yourself Grace
- Regain Your Mojo
- Focus
1. Give yourself Grace
First and foremost you have to stop shaming yourself for once again being distracted and give yourself grace for being human. Living your life is what is most important, so don’t feel guilty for having to balance life and business!
Distractions vary, maybe it is an exciting event like a baby, wedding or graduation. It is possibly a sickness or death of a loved one, even a pet. A death of anything is one of the toughest to overcome so if you have just experienced this please give yourself the time you need to heal. Your dreams will wait on you.
Other major shifts like a move, job change or money issues can suck your mojo and take you out of your winning routine. I know that money struggles will distract me faster and longer than anything else, and when we moved I was off my game for months.
After a few weeks of trying to deal with your personal life often your business is struggling, which likely makes you feel even more overwhelmed and unmotivated. Ugh! I feel you my friend. That is why I recorded this podcast for your listening pleasure, with 3 simple steps to refocusing in your business, or just keep reading, or doing both will help you retain more.
Distractions are everywhere!
This summer has been full of wonderful distractions for me, one daughter graduated, one turned 16, and one is getting married. We went out of town for a week and I don’t know about you but for me vacations seem to be the hardest to recover from. It’s hard to work after being completely free and playing all day. To top it all off my husband is in the middle of working on a huge promotion and has been feeling super stressed and needing my support so I have definitely been distracted and not on task.
The truth is I know that I need to refocus otherwise I risk losing everything I have worked for up to this point.
If you are not moving forward then you are falling behind and like you I have dreams to attain, so lets move on to what you need to do next after you give yourself grace. I also want to remind you that you are a human not a robot so accept that life and business ebb and flow.
For everything there is a season and a time for every activity. Ecclesiastes 3;1
You must take an honest look at what season you are in right now and decide what activity you are going to do to move you forward. Often we will focus on the wrong things and feel frustrated because we aren’t moving forward and since you are already behind don’t waste time working on the wrong thing. Decide what season you are in and do what needs to be done in your business right now to produce the outcome you desire.
- Water and nurture Season : Has your business dried up and you need to water and nurture it right now by checking in with old customers or renewing relationships that you have neglected so that you can see growth and profits again
- Learning or Creation Season: In this season you are not focusing on growth or profits but prepping the field to plant seeds and giving yourself the right foundation to build on. This is where people either fail to build a solid foundation or they get stuck here in this phase of learning and personal development, instead of planting seeds that will produce profits and grow their business. I love to create and learn so I got stuck here in this phase when I should have been focusing on building my audience.
- Planting seeds season: Do you have a fertile ground and a solid foundation and are ready to start planting seeds by expanding your customer base or focus on marketing?
The planting season is the hardest stage of your business, but it’s also the one that gets you closest to the harvest!
All of your dreams are just ahead so plant those seeds so you will have somethingto nurture and grow that will yield profits.
2. regain your mojo
Chances are as much as you want to get back into the groove you are feeling resistance to getting started. That is why it is necessary to reenergize yourself to get into a state of wanting to work again. If you wait to feel like it you may find a month or even a year pass. I know you don’t want that so let’s chat about how to go about how to feel motivated again.
Just as success breeds more success the same principle applies when you are unmotivated, it will bring a trap of laziness and avoiding everything you know you should be doing.
When you are not feeling motivated or at a stand still you can ask yourself: What do I need to do to get back into a motivated state of mind, to breath energy and excitement back into my work.
Here are the 6 areas you can address to get to the root of what is holding you back.
- Clarity
- Desire
- Alignment
- Learn
- Invest
- Organize
You can also listen to Episode 18 of my podcast where I talk in detail about how to get motivated to do what you need to do.
3. focus
Since you have lost momentum from being distracted it is time to focus and take very specific actions that will move you forward fast. This is what I have done over and over to help me focus.
Schedule “Tiger Time” to execute
I learned the concept of “Tiger Time” from Amy Porterfield. The idea is to set aside time to work on the ONE THING that will move you forward. You must plan BEFORE you execute, so that you can optimize your time and not waste it planning, prepping and organizing. When you enter your tiger time make sure you are ready to work.
Eliminate known distractions
I call this step dealing with the Battle of the Heart. The truth is there are things that are more important to you than progressing in your business and when those things such as your family need you it can be very hard to focus on your work or execute your scheduled tiger time. In order to stop allowing distractions to sabotage you come up with a plan to eliminate these distractions ahead of time. Determine how you will handle:
- Kids (hire a sitter, send them with your spouse for a fun outing, special toys/activies during tiger time)
- Notifications (turn off all notifications and put your phone on Do Not Disturb)
- Husbands, coworkers (They won’t respect your time if you don’t so be consistent with creating boundaries around your tiger time, put a sign on the door to remind them and don’t compromise)
Stay empowered
Staying focused requires you to be in an empowered state of mind. Being disempowered is when you are in a weak state, so you owe it to your future success to stay in an empowered state as often as possible. Also, Schedule your Tiger Time at a time you know you are at your best.
Here are a few examples of things you can do to stay empowered and honestly these are not optional if you want to live the life you dream of. You need these things to feel good, so that you can do good.
- Sleep (lack of sleep will disempower you faster than anything else, make getting 7+ hours of sleep a priority or take a power nap if you are not able to sleep 7 hours at once)
- Eat (fuel your body right and eat regularly. Also make sure you are drinking water all day long)
- Laugh and play (It is so easy to work all day but the most successful people embrace the power of play. Make a list of ways you can play and make sure you are play every single day)
- Time off to renew ( Schedule time to relax or take a Sabbath day and be sure to take vacations too!)
- Watch your thoughts keep them positive ( How you feel is all about the thoughts you are thinking so make sure to capture negative thoughts that are bringing you down and make them positive)
Positive Input
The thoughts that you think are influenced by what you are inputting into your mind. The good news is you have control over what you are ingesting mentally so here are a few of my best tips to help you achieve your goals and feel more positive and motivated.
- Writing down and reviewing your goals daily is powerful
- Podcasts can encourage you and give you ideas daily while you drive or do dishes
- Masterminding with motivated people is an effective way to stay pumped up
Now that you know how to give yourself grace and determine what to work on based on the season you are in, you can regain your mojo by getting clear on what you need to do to get motivated (download the worksheet to take action), and you know how to implement a tiger time so you are ready to FOCUS and make up for lost time.